During All-Star Weekend last month, NBPA executive director Billy Hunter and commissioner David Stern addressed the players as they do every year.

But this time Hunter painted a more negative picture, explaining how he couldn't tell the players that everything is currently well in the NBA. He also referenced how Oscar Robertson and Jerry West staged a protest at the 1964 All-Star Game. Hunter insisted the players had an obligation to participate in the game, but his speech made it clear that he wouldn't back down to Stern.

When Hunter was finished and handed the microphone to Stern, the commissioner began to list his resume and his anger was visible.

Stern then announced he knows where "the bodies are buried" in the NBA, according to witnesses.

“It was shocking,” said Derrick Rose. “I was taking off my gear, and when he said that, I just stopped and thought, ‘Whoa …’

“I couldn’t believe that he said it.”

Said another All-Star in the room, “I was shocked … just shocked.”

The moment turned into a galvanizing one for Hunter.

It was “probably the best Billy has been around us,” one veteran Eastern Conference All-Star told Yahoo! Sports.

NBPA executive director Billy Hunter relayed a story from his boyhood to commissioner David Stern to describe the type of labor battle they are engaged in.

“I don’t know where you were raised, but I lived with rats," said Hunter to Stern. "I used to kill rats. We had a .22 rifle and we would lay in the kitchen and shoot them on the floor. One thing my grandmother taught me was that if you got a rat trapped, you’ve got to give his *** a way out, because he will fight you if he has to.

“If you don’t give us a way out, a chance for a compromise, you’re going to get a fight.”